Information About N Port Identifier Virtualization

N port identifier virtualization (NPIV) provides a means to assign multiple FC IDs to a single N port. This feature allows multiple applications on the N port to use different identifiers and allows access control, zoning, and port security to be implemented at the application level. The following figure shows an example application using NPIV.

Figure 1. NPIV Example

Enabling N Port Identifier Virtualization

You can enable or disable NPIV on the switch.

Before You Begin

You must globally enable NPIV for all VSANs on the switch to allow the NPIV-enabled applications to use multiple N port identifiers.